'Suburbia' Review

According to the rule book, Suburbia is a board game where players plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis. Using building tiles, players build up their residential, civic, commercial and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby boroughs. The goal is to end up with a greater population than any of your opponents. Bottom line is, Suburbia is the SimCity PC game played on the dinner table.

How Does the Game Play?
Players start with a borough of their own. Each turn, players look at the real estate market and decide what tile to invest. They could be residential, commercial, civic or industrial tiles, and each carry a cost on it. Depending on whether it's a newly revealed tile or one that's been on the market for quite some time, the bidding price adds to the tile's cost itself. After getting the tile, players can place it to any adjacent tile in his borough. After that, players will adjust the income and reputation of his borough based on the effects that the newly acquired tile provide, and the effect that the surrounding tiles may provide. Once that's done, the player will receive their income and adjust their population based on the borough's reputation. When all is done, the next player will go for his turn. The game ends when the '1 More Round' tile is revealed. At that time, there will be 1 last turn before everyone calculates their population to determine who is the winner.

Easy to Learn, Not So Easy to Win
The game looks simple on the outset, but is deeper than it looks because each tile has a unique effect that affects it's surrounding tiles. Factory tiles increase your income, but decrease your reputation. Commercial tiles increase your income but costs more than factories. Residential tiles instantly raises your borough's population, but does not provide benefits after the turn is over. Civic tiles increase your reputation, but reduces your income. Each of these tiles have its strengths and weakness, and if those are the only elements in play, the game still work fine. However, it is the subtle effects that makes Suburbia shine, for each tile provides additional adjustments to your income and reputation based on what tile is being placed adjacent to it. For example, Factory tiles will reduce your borough's reputation if you place a residential tile next to it, while a Fast Food Restaurant commercial tile will raise your population. Since everyone needs to eat, place a Retirement Village next to your restaurant to gain population. Make sure it's just next to your restaurant and not your factory, or your reputation will decrease, resulting in lower population in your borough. These are but a few examples among the hundred or so tiles you can place in your borough. Some even have permanent effect that spreads across the whole borough and onto other players' boroughs. When you step back from the game and look at it, it makes logical sense. Who would want to live near a factory that pollutes the air that we breathe in?

What If I'm On The Losing End?
Players who are ahead are not guaranteed victories due to the implementation of goals, both publicly and secretly. These goals can range from having the most commercial buildings to having the least income. At the end of the game, players adjust their population if the goals are met. This can really change the outcome of the game, although players who are much ahead usually wins the game. This is to balance out the game so that until the last round is played, no one knows  who will actually win. Although logically it doesn't make sense, in this game, it works and is a necessary element of making the game fun.

Conclusion
Suburbia is a little board game gem. The theme shines well. I've shown it to a number of people and once they learn the rules, they became so engaged in it that 2 hours can pass by and they didn't even notice it. Acquiring a tile makes you feels good. Placing a tile and gaining its benefits makes you feel as if you're in control of your little world. Be careful though, as the tiles usually have a ripple effect that will either make you smile or frown somewhere down the road. I found myself usually feeling good when I first acquired the tile, and somehow feel it was placed not at the optimal location 10 turns later. For players who plan ahead, they usually gain far better rewards in the long run. After playing this game a few times, I can safely say that Suburbia is worth getting, and the time spent playing it is time well spent.

Overall: A

'Zombicide' Review

Zombicide is a board game where a group of heroes fight against hordes of zombies and try to fulfill their objectives. Each game lasts an average of 2 to 3 hours, and every minute is an intense battle to try and survive the surmounting odds. By the end of the game, whether your group survives the zombie apocalypse or not, you will have a story that rivals a Hollywood blockbuster film. It's that epic.

How Does It Play?
Each game, players choose a scenario to play. The game can be played with 1 to 6 players, which will control between 4 to 6 heroes on the board. Each scenario has a specific objective, such as scouting for food to bring back to the camp. Players then setup the the board with objective tokens, shuffle the item and zombie cards, and place any props necessary for the game to start. After that, one of the players will be the starting player and the game will begin.

The game map is separated by zone. A room in a building is a zone. A street between 2 traffic light is a zone. On each game round, players can do 3 out of the 10 possible actions: move, search, open a door, trade inventory, shoot, fight hand to hand, getting in or out of a car, activating an objective token, make some noise, or do nothing. Depending what action the players takes, and the equipment used, there is a chance of making a noise. This is what makes Zombicide a game that does not require a player to play the zombie's action. All zombies are attracted to noise and they will move towards the location with the loudest noise. All actions that cause noise will require a noise token to be placed at the location where the hero was. When the player has finished his turn, the next player on his left goes. Once the players' turns are over, it's the zombies' turn.

How Many Zombies?
There are 4 types of zombies: the Walker, the Fatty, the Abomination, and the Runner. Every zombie has 1 action per turn. On each zombie's turn, if they are with a hero, they will attack. Any hero being attacked will immediately gain one wound and lose one item. If there are no heroes, the zombies will move 1 zone, except for the Runner who has 2 actions and can move 2 zones. After the zombies have moved, 1 zombie spawn card will be drawn for each spawn point on the map. From our experience, zombies overwhelm the streets very quickly. In order to pass through them, a hero needs 1 action to go through a zombie. As you can see, if a hero is in a zone with 3 or more zombies, he basically has no chance of escaping other than to fight to the death. Hopefully, he has a decent weapon in hand already.

Look, I Leveled Up!
When a hero kills a zombie, he gains 1 experience point (xp). The more he kills, the higher the xp, which allows him to 'level up' and attain additional skills, such as an extra move action or a do a search for free. However, this also initiates more zombies appearing per game turn, causing harder ones to appear instead of the easier ones. We haven't had a chance to face the Abomination yet, but our earlier game with 6 Runners running into the room resulted in the gruesome deaths of 2 heroes, and one which carries an item necessary to accomplish the mission!

Live or Die? Survive or Sacrifice?
When bad situation happens, players in my gaming group asks, "Should I survive or sacrifice?" This is a tough decision to make. When a player dies, he's out of the game. Therefore, our group tries to keep everyone alive. However, it is sometimes not possible. When the overwhelming odds are in your face, you have to sometimes be selfish just so that you can live another day for the sake of humanity. This is where the game shines. Each scenario is a blockbuster film. Each escape against the hordes of zombies is an epic story to tell. Each action the hero makes can determine the fate of the group. Whatever you do, be sure it can help your teammates. Otherwise, you'll be cursed by them for eternity.

Conclusion
When I initially went through the rulebook, I thought that the game will be slightly lackluster due to the artwork and the special abilities each hero has when they 'level up'. However, when playing the game, I find myself feeling as if I was in the Walking Dead television series with the fun factor of the Zombieland movie. Our game lasted almost 3 hours. But every minute of that 3 hours was fun and exciting. We strategized every turn. We prepared our movements and made noises only when necessary. We even lost 2 of our members two-thirds into the game and faced a staggering number of zombies who were still on the streets. We almost lost all confidence and morale. However, we stuck through all the way to the end, chainsawing every runner that comes our way and blasting those that did not die in the chainsaw attack with dual sub MG. Once we found all the objective items, we ran for our lives towards the exit route, and yes, we made it! It was epic.

Zombicide is a simple game to learn with lots of actions you can take every turn and tons of interaction among the players. The game boils down to one simple conclusion: survive the mission, no matter what.

Overall: B+